The All Assam Bengali Youth Students’ Federation on October 14th, 2019 staged a three-hour-long road blockade in Dhekiajuli over the death of a 64-year-old ‘mentally unstable’ inmate in the Tezpur detention camp. The body came down heavily on the Assam government for ‘harassing’ the people of the Bengali community in the name of National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The Dhekiajuli regional wing of the Bajrang Dal and Hindu Yuva Chatra Parishad also joined the protest staged at Robortola in Dhekiajuli.
On October 13th, 2019, Dulal Chandra Paul died at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) where he was admitted for medical assistance due to his deteriorating health. He was admitted at the GMCH on September 28th, 2019.
The deceased, who hailed from Alisinga village in Sonitpur district, was staying at the Tezpur detention camp since 2017 after a Foreigners’ Tribunal declared him a foreigner. The family members claimed that Paul was “mentally unstable”.
Assam has a total of six detention centres at present while the seventh centre is under construction in Western Assam’s Goalpara district.
In July 2019, the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary informed the house that a total of 25 persons have died in the six detention centres so far. Out of 25, one died in 2011, four in 2016, six in 2017 and seven in 2018 to July 2019.
Photo: Amal Nath
